The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period Jan. 20-26 and television ratings for the period Jan. 23-29.

Susan Tolusso is a former editor of Playback.

Peace Arch buys kaBOOM

Sports fans looking for their Olympics fix won’t have to look very hard, given the broad range of ways the CBC plans to deliver its coverage of this month’s Winter Games (Feb. 10-26).

* CHUM International closed several deals at NATPE for its entertainment and fashion shows – selling the 20th anniversary special of FashionTelevision to the E! and Style channels of E! Entertainment, and its 18 x 30 makeover series Much In Your Space to Donga TV in South Korea. Meanwhile, the Multishow Channel in Brazil picked up the star profilers Born to Be (16 x 30) and The Star Machine (1 x 60), the music history series Evolution (15 x 30) and the hot-or-not Heat Meter (15 x 30). All are original to CHUM’s MuchMusic.

Sarah Polley will take home the ACTRA Toronto award of excellence at the union’s annual honors next month for her acting chops and ‘fierce commitment to Canadian culture.’

Montreal: Veteran actress, writer and director Denise Filiatrault will receive this year’s lifetime achievement award at the Prix Jutra for her decades-spanning career on stage, TV and film.

* Patrice Theroux is the new CEO of Motion Picture Distribution, taking over from Victor Loewy, who is now chairman. Theroux is staying on as president and COO. David Lazaarato and Phyllis Yaffe – both of MPD’s parent Alliance Atlantis Communications – have also joined the board.

Critics are comparing Guy X – the copro’d story of a solider mistakenly sent to the Arctic – to classic military satires like Catch-22 and M*A*S*H. But not in a good way.

Pamela Brand is executive director and CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada.

Maybe the B.C. government, which recently extended the province’s production tax credits for two more years, noted our readers’ collective angst. In response to an online poll in which Playback asked what the impact on the industry in B.C. would be if the province was to reduce production tax credits, a resounding 72% of voters said it would be devastating, while 14% saw the potential fallout as marginal, and another 14% believed the local industry would find other ways to compete.

A story in Playback’s Jan. 23 issue incorrectly stated that SODEC’s annual funding allocation from the provincial government was down in 2004/05. While the overall amount SODEC disbursed was indeed down, that was only because it committed to certain projects that ended up not receiving their funding during the fiscal year due to production being postponed.